Tories pledge to sack NHS admin staff

The Conservatives launched their new healthcare plan today with a pledge to sack up to 30% of NHS administrative staff.

The Patient's Passport plan, unveiled by shadow health secretary Liam Fox, would also see the state fund a proportion of the cost of treatment in private or voluntary sector hospitals.

Dr Fox has outlined what he believes are the three necessary steps for a better health service.

"Firstly, we need to take politicians out of the day to day running of the health service," he said.

"Secondly, we need to give more freedom to the front-line professionals because managers have to be allowed to manage and doctors and nurses have to be able to decide which patients to treat and in which order.

"Thirdly, patients have to be given more choice about what happens to them within the healthcare system. After all, we're the ones paying the bill."

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he added that under their plan the Conservatives might sack 20 or 30% of non-clinical staff.

He said that numbers of administrative staff have risen by 22,000 in the last year.

"If we're going to be increasing resources in the NHS, we should go to the front-line clinical staff," he said.

Dr Fox said that with the Patient's Passport the state would make a contribution to a patient's private healthcare.

"Patients would get free treatment within the NHS wherever they saw it fit," he said.

"The money that the patient would pay would go where the patient wants. If the patient decides to comes off the NHS waiting list and use their own money to go privately, then the state should make a contribution.

"At the moment in this country, even if you pay into the NHS all your life, if you choose to go privately you have to pay 100% of that yourself even though you'd be shortening the NHS waiting list.

"The Government needs to think far more about a partnership with its own taxpayers."

"People have already paid by their taxes for the system and if they're going to make the waiting lists shorter for everybody else, the Government should make a contribution to that."